At 09:46 AM 11/13/00 -0700, you wrote:
>I was putting my Raleigh Lenton Gran Prix together for a nice classic rider
>and was going to put a GB bar and stem on the bike. I was looking at Dale's
>page later in the day and saw my bars
><http://www.cyclesdeoro.com/GB_bars_1.htm>. Dale's page says, "The most
>sought after GB bar variation?", what is this bar? should it be used as
>barter fodder and not put on a "rider"? What should I do?
Brandon, et al:
My standard GB bar rant, to add to what Ken Denny has already said: The engraved GB bars came on some of the 70s vintage Raleighs Pros and RRAs, and other English bikes (Mercian, Holdsworth, ???). On one side of the stem they had an outline of Britain surrounded by a wreath of some sort and on the other side the letters "GB" surrounded by a wreath. There was also a ribbon or banner sort of thing. The newer ones (1980s, although Dale has them labelled as 1960s) lacked the ribbon but said "Premiere Marque de Grande Bretagne". I have seen two versions of this: one has an external sleeve to increase the diameter in the engraving/clamping area (a la Cinelli) that is gold anodized, the other is actually a larger diameter throughout the engraved area. The late 60s bars on the Dawes Galaxy had a totally different pattern. Just a really nice ornate collection of curves and leafy patterns.
Check them carefully for cracks near the clamp area and outboard near that first curve. Don't know what the deal is on the cracks but I accidentally purchased one set that has nicely matching cracks on each side (they were hidden under the bar tape), just about where the curve starts. I've also had a couple knowledgeable people express amazement that the set I ride hasn't cracked. I'm a small guy (150 on a high gravity day) and I don't ride hard so that's probably why they survived. A couple years ago I saw another scary set of GBs that a friend got with an old Mercian he picked up at a swap meet. They were so badly corroded by salt from sweat soaking through the tape, or a reaction with the bar tape adhesive that neither of us would dare use them on anything other than a display bike. They were just turning to powder. After that little discovery and a few since then, I started adding a layer of plastic tape under the cloth tape. Paranoia is good.
Many people are looking for the early 70s version (banner) because they are a little different from the usual Cinellis, and look totally appropriate on any Brit bike of that era. Too narrow to be comfortable for many people but for an occaisional rider, if they aren't obviously cracked or bent, why not ride them? I would not personally recommend them for any bike that will be doing serious pothole pounding.
Don't be surprised if you hear from other group members trying to wangle a deal for the bars. Maybe you already have. Some of them are pretty fast on the keyboard.
Larry "Heebie-GBs" Osborn